Completed Draft History of Fawcett Forest
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Victoria County History of Cumbria Project. Draft parish/township histories [Note: This is a provisional draft and should not be cited without first consulting the VCH Cumbria project team: http://www.cumbriacountyhistory.org.uk] Parish/township: FAWCETT FOREST Author: Tony Cousins Date of Draft: May 2017 FAWCETT FOREST1 LANDSCAPE, SETTLEMENT AND BUILDINGS Fawcett Forest was a thinly-populated, rural, upland township six miles north of Kendal of 6,470 a. (2618 ha.). From its lowest point (c.145 m.) – at the confluence of the Ashstead Beck and Bannisdale Beck in the south-east corner of the township – the land rises to Harrop Pike (637 m.) at its north-west tip. The topography has no obvious geographical unity but includes parts of three roughly parallel valleys, divided by ridges of high land, orientated on a south- east to north-west axis together with part of a north-south orientated valley. The township thus included most of Bannisdale, the head of Borrowdale, all of Crookdale and the western side of the valley formed by the Ashstead Beck.2 1 The author would like to thank Lenore Knowles, Romola Stringer, Geoff Brambles, Bridget Machell, Sylvia Kelly at Kendal Library and Max Clark at Kendal Archives for their assistance when researching this article. 2 The head of the valley of the River Mint and might be called Mintdale but has never been described as such. The name Fawcett was first written as Faxside in the 13th century and is believed to describe a ‘variegated hillside.’3 There are 13th century references to the forest of Bannisdale4 but ‘Fawcett Forest’ is not recorded until 1539 when it was described as the manor and lordship of Fawcett alias Fawcett Forest.5 Later descriptions sometimes refer to ‘Bannisdale and Fawcett Forest’ implying that they were previously separate entities.6 The name Bannisdale7 is thought to be Scandinavian in origin and has been interpreted as ‘Bannand’s valley.’8 Boundaries From Harrop Pike the southern boundary follows the high ground between Bannisdale and Longsleddale before descending to and then following the Bannisdale Beck. The eastern boundary tracks the Ashstead Beck northwards and then crosses the watershed to the Borrow Beck. It turns briefly downstream before ascending to higher ground over Crookdale Crag and Red Crag and then goes westwards via Little and Great Yarlside to return to Harrop. The high moorland boundaries favour the rather indeterminate ridges but are identifiable as they nearly always follow fences or drystone walls of unknown age. These boundaries may be the same as those described in the 12th and 13th centuries9 but could relate to the later Bellingham manor.10 Several of the named places, including the starting point for early 3 PNW, I, 137. 13th century variants include Fakside, Fauxsyd and Fausyde. 4 Rec. Kend, I, 231. 5 Rec. Kend. I, 235, 236. The earliest Kendal parish register entry is for November 1575. Later entries often abbreviate to ‘the Forest.’ Saxton (1579) and some subsequent mapmakers write ‘Fawcetwood’ but this name does not occur in the parish registers. 6 See Landownership below. 7 Usually pronounced ‘Bannis–dll’ by nearby native-born residents. 8 D. Whaley, Dict. LDPN, 17. 9 See Landownership below. 10 Ibid. perambulations, the Arnestein11 – a rock on the boundary of Fawcett Forest and Whinfell – cannot now be definitely identified.12 The township of Fawcett Forest straddled the Borrow Beck – traditionally considered to be the boundary between the Baronies of Kendal and Westmorland although the Kendal Barony’s influence seems to have once extended well into the Bottom of Westmorland.13 The ancient parish boundaries and the pre-1856 division between the dioceses of Carlisle and Chester also followed the Borrow Beck. The township was further subdivided as the parishes of Orton and Shap were separated by the Crookdale Beck. In consequence, a large part of the area of the township – although only a handful of habitations – was in Orton or Shap parish rather than Kendal parish and for part of its history in the East or West Ward rather than the Kendal Ward of Westmorland. The new 1894 civil parish boundaries adopted the ecclesiastical parish boundaries thereby creating a reduced modern Fawcett Forest parish of 3,935 a. (1,592 ha.) within South Westmorland Rural District. These boundaries were amended in 193514 when 366 a. (148 ha.) were taken from Shap, Orton and Whinfell parishes and Fawcett Forest expanded to 4,301 a. (1,740 ha.). The only occupied houses within the large area previously removed from the township – High Borrow Bridge, Hause Foot and High House – then rejoined Fawcett Forest.15 Nearly all of Fawcett Forest was included in the Lake District National Park boundaries of 1951 and the remainder was added by the 2016 extension. 11 Eagle rock. Also Arnestan(e) or Ernestan, Rec. Kend. I., 223, 231, 388-90. 12 Possibly the rock on the earlier township boundary at NY552037 that overlooks Borrowdale and Crookdale. 13 Rev. J Hodgson, A Topographical and Historical Description of Westmorland, (London,1810), 3. 14 Westmorland Review Order, (1934). 15 Descriptions within this article assume township boundaries as they were before 1894. Landscape The western parts of Fawcett Forest consist of hills covered with rough grasses and the partially drained blanket bogs16 that merge at the head of Bannisdale, Borrowdale and Crookdale. The higher ground is nearly treeless, as is the Crookdale valley and even on the north-eastern edge, where the A6 has been cut into the slopes below Crookdale Crag and tracked by two lines of pylons, the area appears almost empty. In most seasons, the greener pastures beside the winding streams in the valley bottoms contrast with the darker areas above the fell walls where grasses dominate but there are also swathes of bracken, bilberry and heather and areas of exposed rock, usually on valley shoulders. This is upland country of character but too bleak to attract numerous admirers or walkers. The 1769 description of the Shap Fells as, ‘not only barren but destitute of every picturesque beauty,’ 17 is not very different from the response of the 20th century Lake District enthusiast, Alfred Wainwright, who described a ridge route around Crookdale, as ‘very lonely territory’ where ‘the desolation is profound’ and ‘not Lakeland.’18 The south-eastern part of the township is of a different character – a softer, rolling landscape of fields and woods sloping down to the Ashstead Beck. Bannisdale is less bleak and more wooded than the other valleys but has only a single-track access road. In 1844 it was proposed as the site of two reservoirs to maintain water supplies to local mills during dry 16 Drainage grips were cut in the 20th century but between 2012 and 2017 work was undertaken in bunding and peat reprofiling, See: https://restorerivers.eu/wiki/index.php?title=Case_study%3ASource_to_Sea_Programme_– _5._Borrowdale_Moss,_Peatland_Restoration (Accessed June 16, 2017). 17 Thomas Pennant, A Tour in Scotland, (London, 1769), 278. 18 A. Wainwright, The Far Eastern Fells, A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, Book Two, (Kendal, 1957), Grey Crag 6. periods and in 1962 there was a Manchester Corporation scheme to build a large dam to abstract water. The Bannisdale part of the earlier scheme19 was not implemented and the later one defeated in the House of Lords20 and it remains ‘the most secluded of Westmorland’s valleys.’21 Named hills within the township include: White Howe, Long Crag, High House Bank, Robin Hood and Lord’s Seat. In addition, the Fawcett Forest boundaries traverse Capplebarrow, Ancrow Brow, Crookdale Crag, Red Crag, Great and Little Yarlside and Harrop Pike. Only Harrop exceeds 600; the other hills range from 420-600 metres above sea level. Geology, Soils, Relief The north-west edge of Fawcett Forest is underlain by the older rocks of the Borrowdale Volcanic Group, but the bedrock of most of the area is composed of the predominantly sandstone Coniston Group and the overlying siltstones and mudstones of the Bannisdale Formation.22 The rock sequence is contorted by the major east-north-eastwards trending downfold known as the Bannisdale syncline that crosses the area.23 The high ground has extensive areas of peat such as Borrowdale Moss and some areas are permanently wet and others hagged. Soils are often shallow on upper slopes with exposures of rock but the lower slopes and valley floors have considerable depths of glacial till. This 19 An Act for Making and Maintaining Reservoirs in the Parish of Kendal in the County of Westmorland 1845. 20 Manchester Corporation Bill, 1961. 21 A. Wainwright, Three Westmorland Rivers, (Kendal, 1979), 1, Bannisdale. 22 B.G.S., Geology of the Kendal District, (NERC 2010), Sheet 39: Kendal Bedrock (2007) & Bedrock and Superficial Deposits (2008). 23 The Shap Fell roadside cuttings and rocky exposures of Crookdale Crag (NY 555054) are listed as an SSSI because of the geological interest of the exposure of the syncline at this site. forms fine loamy or silty soils that drain well but are usually moist because of the high rainfall. The rivers in these glacial, upland valleys all flow to the south but, whereas the Crookdale and Borrow Becks are part of the Lune catchment, the Bannisdale Beck and Ashstead Beck join to become the River Mint that drains to the Kent. Communications Roads and bridges The early medieval grants to Byland Abbey refer to a road from Kendal to Westmorland through the area.24 This is likely to have taken the same route through the gap between Nab End and Ashstead Fell, along Crookdale and up Shap Fell that was later followed by the turnpike road. The ‘Horse House’ probably referring to Hause House or Hause Foot,25 appears on a 1675 London to Carlisle road map.26 The Jacobite and pursuing government armies struggled along this route in 1745 and in 1753 the Heronsyke and Eamont Bridge turnpike trust was founded to improve it.27 Between 1819 and 182728 most of this section of road was realigned on gentler gradients and new bridges built over the rivers, but it remained a difficult stretch on an important road.